International Whistleblower Rewards are being offered to International Whistleblowers that expose international bribery schemes, illegal kickbacks, and government corruption. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the new SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program, whistleblowers with original and specialized knowledge and evidence of corporate bribery and illegal kickbacks are eligible to recover large economic awards.

TI reviewed anti-corruption activity in 37 (out of a total of 39) parties to the Convention and discovered that, with 144 new cases in 2011, the total number of cases prosecuted increased from 564 in 2010 to 708 in all of 2011. In addition, 286 investigations remain ongoing.

"RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Finance Minister Guido Mantega has chided Western central banks over money-printing and other stimulus measures, and warned that Brazil could impose taxes on speculative foreign capital to avoid its currency strengthening. Mantega reiterated his stance that Brazil would take “all necessary steps,” including “those adopted in the past” to prevent Brazil’s real from appreciating unduly."

"Mantega said Brazil would win further foreign investment through global confidence in its economy – and said that despite the current slowdown in Brazil’s economy, 2013 would be see stronger growth of four percent or more."

"However, it was recently revealed that a forty-percent drop in foreign investments had hit Brazil earlier this year, wiping billions of dollars of the country’s main Bovespa stock exchange."

"Back in 2009, investors were taken aback when Brazil imposed taxes on some foreign investments, which it argued were speculative and harmful to the economy."

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer is under investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on suspicion of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Embraer, the fourth largest producer of aircraft in the world, announced it was undertaking an internal investigation into its operations in three countries in response to the subpoena issued by the SEC.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits companies whose securities are listed in the U.S. from making payments to foreign officials “for the purposes of obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.” It also requires that companies keep accurate records of all their transactions.

If found guilty of a criminal charge the company could face fines of up to, and possibly exceeding, US$2 million. Moreover, individual employees or directors within the company could be fined up to US$100,000 each and imprisoned for a maximum of five years.

The sanctions also dictate that firms found to be in violation of the FCPA could be banned from doing business with the U.S. Federal Government.

This could inhibit Embraer’s reported bid to win a nearly US$1.5 billion deal to supply 100 light attack aircraft to the U.S. military. Frederico Curado, Embraer’s CEO, announced on Friday that he was “confident that it won’t prevent us participating in any bidding process.”

Embraer put forward their Super Tucano jets, which carry a price tag of between US$10-15 million. They are currently among the four finalists in the bidding, and if they win, the deal would not only represent their biggest single-sale of Super Tucanos ever, but also a way into the lucrative U.S. defense market.

Money manager Fidelity saw a surge of cash into a Southeast Asian equities mutual fund this summer, helping it leap past $2 billion in size and overtake a long-time leading rival product from J.P. Morgan (JPM.N).

The inflows underscore the popularity of Southeast Asia at a time when key emerging market economies are seeing outflows. The region of 600 million people has a combined economy of $2 trillion that is boosted by domestic consumption, public spending and a growing middle class.
It also shows that Southeast Asian investors are getting choosier, and gravitating towards better-performing funds.

"It's been a good story to market," Medha Samant, a Hong Kong-based investment director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said in a telephone interview.

"Clients are increasingly feeling that ASEAN markets are in a much stronger position to weather a global economic downturn compared to 10 years ago," she said.

Assets of Southeast Asia-focused funds tracked by Lipper stood at $7.8 billion at the end of July, the highest since December 2007. Other offshore funds investing into individual countries in the region managed a further $16 billion.

More than 50 mutual funds focus on Southeast Asia stock investments, nearly double from five years ago, and the inflows for Fidelity and some others such as Japan's Daiwa will help draw investor attention to the region as other Asian countries such as China and India slow. The inflows could ultimately help deepen the region's relatively illiquid markets.

War profiteering and fraudulent defense contractors have cost the United States Billions of Dollars through corrupt businesses seeking payment from the government for defective products, services that were never provided, and dangerous products. Relators and Whistleblowers are encouraged to blow the whistle on defense contractors that cheat the government through False Certification of Product Quality, Product Substitution, Cross Charging, False Certification of Services Provided, Charging for Services or Goods not provided, Violations of the Truth-in-Negotiations Act ("TINA"), and Improper Cost Allocation.

"More than 100 defense companies from Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the world’s largest arms maker, to Czech military truck manufacturer Tatra AS, face a new test of their anticorruption practices as an independent watchdog puts the industry under examination."

"The U.K. arm of Transparency International will issue its first ranking of about 130 companies worldwide on Oct. 4, grading their corporate guidelines for avoiding corruption. Each company is being assessed against 34 criteria and will receive a grade from A to F, an executive for the not-for-profit organization said in an interview in London."